Brooke raises over £5,000 for Cure Leukaemia

20th November 2014

18-year-old Brooke Evans from Redditch has raised £5,500 for Cure Leukaemia through her ‘Sprint for Life.’

Brooke has always had a passion for cars as her father Simon owns an independent Porsche business in Redditch so she decided to combine her love of cars with fundraising for a unique idea.

Earlier this year Brooke raced a Cure Leukaemia branded Porsche 944 S2 for the very first time in the final round of the Shenstone & District Car Club’s Speed Championship at Curbourough racetrack in Staffordshire.

The Porsche was also branded with local companies, including Cure Leukaemia partner OGL Computer, who all donated £100 to be included on the bonnet. On the day itself fellow racers were encouraged to take part in a raffle to win a bottle of champagne and they also had the opportunity to sign the bonnet of the car.

Brooke’s racing was a great success and she completed three timed laps of the circuit, narrowly missing out on her aim to get round below 40 seconds.

The day was completed with Shenstone & District Car Club offering a bonus lap to the racers present with their fees donated to Cure Leukaemia. The event was a great success and the £5,500 raised will be leveraged to be worth £55,000 in potentially life saving drugs for blood cancer patients across the region.

Brooke was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in 2013 and receives support and treatment for her disease as part of a clinical trial that is delivered through the Cure Leukaemia funded clinical trials unit at the Centre for Clinical Haematology at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and the University of Birmingham. Brooke was recognised for her fundraising at the Midlands Children of Courage Awards at Villa Park in November, winning the Midlands Foundation Hero Award.

“my ‘Sprint for Life’ has been great fun and I am so proud to have raised this money for a charity that means a lot to myself and my family. It was such a thrill to finally have my chance to race the Porsche. My illness had prevented me from doing so before so this really was a dream come true for me.

I’d like to thank all the companies, friends and fellow racers who sponsored me and, of course, Shenstone & District Car Club for making this all possible. I’m just so glad I’ve been able to raise money that can directly help people just like me.”

James McLaughlin the Chief Executive of Cure Leukaemia said,

“I’d like to congratulate Brooke on her ‘Sprint for Life.’ It has been a great success and I’d like to thank Brooke, her family and Shenstone & District Car Club for working so hard to help raise funds for Cure Leukaemia.

We are so grateful to the people in the community who make the effort every year to hold events and fundraisers like this and I know the money raised will go directly into helping save more lives around the region.”